This wasn’t supposed to happen. Like at all.

I have a repeated, consistent tendency for car deals just springing themselves on me. I’ll loosely be looking for a car to fit a category, and I’ll blink an eye and own something I didn’t anticipate acquiring in an extremely condensed timeline. In addition to that, I’ll end up finding the exact spec I want in that deal, which is insane, blind luck. This was no different.

Not to go down a massive tangent about a different car, but I had encountered a small problem with my Miata: it was objectively excellent at everything, and thus kind of invalidated using any other of my enthusiast vehicle for a given task. I know, first world problem, but hear me out:

It is cheap to insure, takes 87 octane, is relatively comfortable (for a person of my size in a Miata), and gets great gas mileage, only second to my motorcycle. Which makes it an amazing daily.

It has Xidas and IL Motorsport hardened rubber bushings, making it compliant and comfortable on the street and an absolute weapon on backroads. The exhaust and intake are the perfect volume to bomb around at night and not wake anyone up. Which makes it an amazing street car.

It is a Miata, with sufficient track mods and safety equipment to effortlessly lap without concern. Which makes it an amazing track car.

It has a Torsen diff with proper mounts and 15″ tires. Which makes it an amazing drift car. (within a small venue)

As a 1 car solution, it is incredible. It does everything that I could ever ask of a sports car within reason. It made Miata Reunion 2024 an absolute pleasure of an experience. (minus the fender bender, not the car’s fault) It took me to a season win at Chuckanut Sports Car Club. It drove 9,000 miles of backroads, highways, and daily driving from February to November without a single falter and a smile on my face the whole time.

So who in their right fucking mind would think that it is worth replacing? Me. Obviously.

The glaring issue with the car was despite all of its benefits, it left a slot open in the fleet that I didn’t quite know how to fill. While encapsulating all of the outstanding driving dynamics and 90s vibes I could ever want, it’s still an NA6 Miata. Meaning it is monumentally slow in a straight line, which is highlighted even worse at the track. I was getting left by other Miatas at Miata Reunion, which just feelsbadman. This isn’t to say that I can’t have a blast by myself on track, but part of the joy of an HPDE for me is filtering through traffic and playing with the checkbook cars in a homebrew rattlebox. The 1.6 held it’s own in a fleet of other Miatas, but I was desperately aware of the reality that any other HPDE was not going to be as restrained. There is also a safety issue of closing speeds on track, but that is a discussion for another time.

This dilemma, if you could call it that, meant I needed an additional vehicle to go play with my friends in faster cars on track. I knew what I would build given the choice, which would be an LFX RX-8. A platform that I have an immense amount of time with that I know can accomplish what I am looking to do. However, once the rotary is removed from that chassis and pistons are inserted, it loses 90% of the soul and fun for me. The LFX, while a stout engine with great output, is a groaning V6 that doesn’t have the pizzazz of the J-series or 2GR in the audio or character department. The accompanying Aisin AY6 transmission is even more abysmal, with it’s clunky shifter and agricultural synchros making it less than confident as a box meant to be used in anger. I have investigated an VERY wide range of other chassis and engines (S54 E36 or E30 was a close second), however none of them could nail both the vibe on the street combined with the consistent pace on the track that I was looking to achieve for the money I was willing to spend, especially with 2025 prices.

Other than an SR20DET 240SX, which I had chalked up to missing the boat on before I even had a license. With the rising prices of both shells and motors, that dream was over before I fell asleep.

This dream didn’t spawn out of thin air or deep thought. I had a handful of friends that had successfully campaigned S-chassis as a road racing platform for many years. The most prominent being my good friend Alex, who still keeps the NissanRoadRace forum afloat to this day. Before I even knew Alex personally, the memory of his S13 coupe at PIR for a TNIA is seared into my brain. For some reason it really stuck with me, and I appreciated both how capable the car was, and how much paddock presence it had versus comparable cars. It was just downright tough.

Since that dream started, all of my S chassis road race friends have moved on to more traditional and capable platforms for a variety of reasons. But there was still something in me that wanted to be in that position, regardless of the cost and rarity of the cars and their parts. I wanted to carry the mantle of road raced S chassis among my friends in the PNW, but I didn’t really even know it. I shelved the idea with my head, accepting that I’ll probably keep and finish outfitting my current fleet, and then add a lapping tool to the roster in a few years to go run with the pace of more modern stuff, even if I really don’t want to own a 4th enthusiast car. It just becomes hard to stay on top of in my experience if you actually want to maintain all of the cars to a reasonable level, while using them consistently, and having time outside of 4 wheel inanimate objects.

A different friend and I were discussing S chassis one night, waxing poetic about how lovely they are. So naturally we start looking on Facebook Marketplace, also known as the Silk Road of Bad Ideas. I stumble across a car that’s been posted for over 6 months that I had looked at MANY times in that period, because I thought it was rad.

While this was primarily an exercise for someone else, as I started looking more into it, I began to see a lot of boxes checked in what I was looking for.

Competent SR setup. Same mods I would do if I was building a car for this task. Alright, this is looking promising. Big fan of old/rare parts actually being used, and this has a lot of those.

Underside is clean and straight. Lots of sphericals and parts designed for good chassis dynamics. Someone clearly cared about going around corners with the rear end being behind the car, not beside it. A little outdated in some areas, but I am more than capable of fixing those.

I start thinking to myself “Well this kinda does make sense. It’s faster than the Miata but retains the 90s vibes and aesthetic that I deeply love. I bet I could make the financials work if I sold my Miata and all the parts, and I could be into this thing for not much out of pocket.”

Fuck it. Messaged him.

This is all around the time of my surgery for my broken collarbone, so I had far too much time sitting around to revel in my own thoughts and bad ideas. I knew deep down that if it had been posted for that long, with that pricetag on it, he wasn’t checking messages. I don’t hear back for a couple days.

Ok I’ll private message him. A few days go by, nothing.

At that point, I’d kind of given it up. If I can’t make it through, its either sold or he just isn’t checking Facebook.

I don’t know what divine intervention occurred, but I have to thank the big man upstairs for this blessing. The owner of this car had two old ads on his Marketplace profile. I had already clicked on one of them previously to get an idea of what kind of guy the seller was, and it was an equally documented and well represented truck, which was a good sign. I clicked on the other ad, which was for a DR-Z, and my heart rate picked up.

There was a fucking phone number spelled out in the bottom of this ad from 5 years ago.

I text that number immediately, asking if this is Kyle and is the S13 still for sale.

I get a text back a while later that says “yes and yes”.

Hopium levels breaking the scale at this point. The normal exchange occurs from there. Many questions from my side, as well as a demonstration that I am seriously interested and will come pay whatever he was asking for the car. The last several car deals I have done included cleaning out the previous owners of anything related to the car, and this was no exception. I wanted everything he was willing to give me, at the price he was willing to sell it at, including the Aeromarker mirrors that had been removed previously to lower the price.

The real alignment of the stars moment occurred over text after Kyle sent me the photo below:

If you’ve been around long enough, you’ll know that cars don’t just end up in photos tagged “Speedhunters” for no reason. Which immediately led to this discovery:

https://www.speedhunters.com/2008/06/car_feature_gt_gt_instant_gentleman_s13/

This exact car, that I am now about to buy, was shot in Speedhunters in 2008.

Not only that, this is the poster car for the Instant Gentleman Silvia kit. Its THE car. I have friends who, upon sending them the link, said that they have had photos of this car saved for as long as that article has been posted. I had almost certainly seen it in my time spent chronically online, and that just 10x-ed the cool factor for me. As a nerd for the post Option Video/Best Motoring era of online car history (love that stuff too, I am just younger so I got exposed to less of that vs the SH/peak forums era), having a period Speedhunters piece on a car I own is something I could never dream of.

At this point, I was hellbent on getting this thing, especially with the history. I didn’t want such a significant car falling into the hands of some muppet who didn’t appreciate it like I did. I had my collarbone surgery on a Friday, and 7 days later, I loaded up my roommate’s trailer (thank you Lucas) and all the stuff I thought I would need, while still in a sling, and hit the road for Idaho. My father had agreed to come with me as he did on my cross country Lexus excursion. It’s always a pleasure to spend time with him.

The trip over the I-90 pass was somewhat eventful as it was actively snowing and sticking. Slippery if you really put your foot in it, but the trailer never got out of control, and the Tundra handled it just fine. All bets were off with indicated lanes when it was snowing that hard so we just followed the tracks of those before us, and everyone got through unscathed, at least going eastbound.

I booked us a hotel in Umatilla, Oregon, which put us exactly halfway to Boise. In my old age (lol), I’ve found that insane early morning departures, while fun, aren’t worth the $120 that a hotel costs for drives like this. The experience is so much better if you don’t have to hotshot a 16 hour event. We got in at a reasonable time, and were able to depart early as well. One of the factors I had not considered until the middle of that night (barely slept, half excitement, half something I ate that kept me up) is that we were going to gain an hour going into MST from PST, which meant our early departure was slightly more stressed given the fact that we had to make both appointments that we had set up. The pickup of the car was fairly relaxed, but my roommate had requested that we stop and grab a bunch of 4A-GE transmissions (ended up being 2 E51s and an E58 LSD, great deal) on the way to Boise, so he literally used us as a caravan camel after setting his Marketplace location to Boise.

We arrived in Boise to a lovely 50 degree day (a blessing in February), and the deal was as seamless as any good deal should be. Kyle was an incredible seller to work with and had done a great job preserving the car in his 12 year ownership. He said he hadn’t really used the car in the last 5 years or so (it did get run; no real risk of lot rot), but he hadn’t done much to it and it kind of sat around looking pretty in his garage. The car showed evidence of such an existence: The paint was in good shape for its age (other than the roof), the interior hadn’t faded significantly, and the side of the car facing into the garage was riddled with small dents, telling the tales of an occasional run in with a broom handle or bicycle handlebar. As cars of this age go, it was remarkable how well it had held up.

The test drive went perfectly. It was just as described, and even slightly better. I recall being in significant discomfort between the tiny Bride seat and using my 8 day post-op arm to shift a reasonable effort shifter, but the experience was incredible. It gave me all of the engagement and feels that I wanted, and I knew I had made the right call by starting down this path. I tore down this little access road near a golf course, much to the chagrin of people enjoying their quiet spring day as a dirty SR car with a smiling manchild behind the wheel buzzes around. I regret not pulling over to get a photo to capture the moment, but due to my arm, my ingress and egress was significantly limited and I didn’t want to chance it.

Obviously cash was exchanged and the title was signed. After the official transaction, Kyle inquired how I got his phone number, which I was happy to tell him. Both him and his wife were impressed by the resourcefulness and both iterated some version of “You kinda came out of no where, but were nice and clearly very competent”, which I was appreciative of. Obviously it was a gamble responding to a text out of nowhere on a car that is in a “posted for sale but not really looking to sell it” scenario. I think it worked out pretty well for all parties involved.

The load up went very well. Despite how low the car looks, it wears it’s height very well, and had no problems with the trailer after the RaceRamps were implemented.

What these load up photos fail to capture was the 45 minutes of shuffling to get the spare fiberglass body kit and 3 transmissions into the bed without interacting with one another on the 8 hour drive home, as well as getting all of the rare and delicate components loaded in the car and cab of the truck. After it was all said and done, the only two open seats remaining were the ones in the cab in the truck. Definitely not my first rodeo in this regard. The only concern on the drive home was the fact that the passenger fender of the car was bare steel. I had anticipated bad weather, and to prevent bringing back the 2011 SoWo look, had brought along Boeshield T-9, which is my favorite flavor of a waterproof corrosion protection oil. I can say that even in direct spray for hours (ironically similar to a qualifying salt spray test), it held up perfectly.

The drive home was as unremarkable as I hoped it was. We were checking the I-90 pass cameras as we were approaching the fork in the road that either took us directly west to Portland, or northwest towards the way we had came. Fortunately, the pass was clear of all snow and featured a torrent of heavy, warm rain. A weather condition I vastly prefer over the experience we had a day before.

The car landed safely back in my home garage in Seattle, but was transported to my father and I’s remote storage the next day, as I knew access to this car would mean I would work on it and drive it, which could hinder my ability to heal from my aforementioned injuries. I turned my garage spot over to my roommate for a few weeks, in an effort to force myself to chill out and heal, so he could track prep his other car for the start of the time attack season. This strategy has proved successful, and its very weird only having one of my vehicles at this house.

The subsequent day was spent doing that vehicle shuffle, as well as unloading those ungodly heavy transmissions. For some reason E153 internals might as well be solid lead. As I had 1 viable arm and Lucas has a compromised back, we actually used our brains for once.

While it felt dumb to put the car immediately into storage, it was the right thing to do. I can always go tinker on it during weekends as I am healing, and it’s given Lucas the space to get both of his cars together for the year.

Closing Thoughts: Like all my car deals, this is one that came out of nowhere that I totally chanced into. I didn’t expect to ever own one of these cars, but here I am, owning my dream spec, base model KG2 SR20 coupe. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities and life I am able to live, especially for my age, and I am overjoyed to be this car’s caretaker for the future. While it won’t be as delicately preserved as it’s former stance life (read: tracked and driven lots), I don’t let cars degrade. It will only get better as I spend more time with it, and I hope the next chapter in VIN#003456’s life is a continuation of the impact it made on so many, especially myself.

I reached out to the photographer and writer of the Speedhunters article, Antonio Alvendia, who now runs MotorMavens (another beloved blog that I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from over the years), and he was stoked that the car was still around and someone that recognized the history has it. Connecting the dots was fun, and I hope to continue to do more of that.

I own an S13 that comes up on the front page of Google Image searches. Life is wild.

Until next time.